The organized family project

Are you struggling to keep your home organized this school year? Kathi Lipp offers helpful tips and strategies to keep your home running smoothly, in a way that is realistic for you and your family. She speaks to the importance of having a designated place for everything.

“We think that our kids are going to remember from school year to school year, well three months is a long time to be on a break. You do have to spend some time investing upfront in retraining everybody. When I say retraining, it means you need to know where things go.”

“Just declare a place and if that doesn’t work, you can declare a place again in another few days and say, ‘this is where we put our backpacks when we go home.’ Have a place to put your keys. We actually have two little baskets right by our front door, one for my keys and one for my husband’s keys. It’s made all the difference, not only in our home, but in our marriage.”

As parents, we have an opportunity to create a healthy and happy environment for the entire family. Kathi says a good place to start is to have a daily routine for ourselves.

“Start with your morning routine and just say, ‘okay, here are the four things I do every morning; I unload the dishwasher, I make sure that I know what we’re having for dinner that night, or whatever it is.”

“Then in the evenings have four things that you do every night; ‘I’m going to pick out the clothes that I’m going to wear and the kids are going to wear, I’m going to know what we’re having for breakfast, etc.’ It’s just pre-planning and pre-deciding so the next day you don’t even have to think about it, it’s already been thought-through.”

We don’t have to spend a ton of time planning out our daily routines, but just enough time to alleviate the pressure of going through another day unplanned. Kathi expands,

“When I’m deciding what we’re having for dinner, either at breakfast time or maybe earlier in the week when I sit down with everything, it’s not a stressed-induced decision. All of the possibilities are there and I can say what does our week look like? What does our schedule look like? And we can go from there.”

“When you’re doing it in the moment, most of time our decision is ‘where’s the closest fast food?’ We don’t want to be living in panic all the time and so planning is what eliminates panic.”

By implementing daily routines and systems, we will become more organized as a family and lessen the stress in our homes – and in our lives.

Kathi Lipp is a full-time speaker and writer as well as being the parent of four young adults with her husband, Roger in San Jose, CA. When she is not doing laundry, she is speaking at retreats, conferences and women’s events across the US. She is author of several books including and The Get Yourself Organized Project: 21 Steps to Less Mess and Stress.